Appliances that last forever (a tribute to the Sam’s refrigerator)

This is a tribute to the most impressive inanimate object I know, a refrigerator at a Burlingame sandwich shop I’ve been going to for most of the past four decades. If you have an appliance that has lasted forever or have run across one in your daily travels, please take a picture, write a sentence or six about it and send an e-mail to me at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. If I get some good images and stories I’ll put them in another post later this week.

The most badass inanimate object I know …

I remember looking up into the glass front of the refrigerator at Sam’s Italian Sandwich Co. in Burlingame, and not being able to see what was on the top two shelves. I was probably 5 or 6 years old at the time, and their ham sandwiches were maybe two bucks. I was lucky if I could eat half of a medium.

I got a little older, and Sam’s sandwiches became an increasingly steady part of my diet. I would save my junior high lunch money until after school, and walk into the place starving at 3:30 p.m. My high school was across the street from Sam’s, but it was a closed campus during lunch hour. Friends would come up with elaborate “The Great Escape”-style schemes to get off campus, buy three or four sandwiches, and avoid detection on the way back. Most kids who snuck by the guards were going to smoke dope. We just wanted a good salami sandwich instead of bad cafeteria food.

Decades passed and I moved away, but continued to visit Sam’s whenever I could. I currently live in Oakland, but still go to a dentist twice per year in San Mateo so I can get a sandwich on the way out of town. If I pitch a story to my editors that involves something on the Peninsula, I schedule my interviews right before lunch time. (Never after. Sam’s puts a garlic/olive oil mixture on the bread …)

I love the food, but I have to admit that my visits are more and more about seeing the Sam’s refrigerator. Almost 35 years after my first visit to Sam’s (I turn 40 today), the refrigerator is still working.

As I get continue to age, I’ve developed increasing respect for old things that work well. Often this respect is for people, but it also extends to inanimate objects. I have an old blender that I’ve used since college, and get a warm feeling every time I press “puree” to make a smoothie or batch of chile verde. That blender made margaritas in my dorm room three years before I turned 21, assisted with the first dinner I made for my wife in the late 1990s and has helped create milkshakes for my kids. It might go for about $1.25 at a garage sale, but I wouldn’t trade it in for a new Cuisinart.

That should help to explain my fascination, respect and awe at the Sam’s refrigerator. It’s the Dennis Richmond of appliances — a Bay Area institution that has developed legendary status not by being flashy or accomplishing one memorable act, but by simply doing its job with excellence day after day for several decades. Sam’s opened in 1972 and for all I know proprietor Rino Betti (the Dennis Richmond of sandwich shop owners) bought it used.

The refrigerator is red and white with the words “ICE COLD” on the front and “here’s the real thing” written on the side, which must have been the Coke ad campaign when Nixon was in office. The only new additions are a 49ers sticker on one side, a Snapple sticker on the front and a removable yellow board with drink and potato salad prices. There are a few nicks and scrapes — especially to the left of the door handle — but otherwise the appliance offers no reason to believe that it won’t last another 40 years.

The Sam’s refrigerator in May 2010

I can only imagine what the insides look like. I would guess it’s similar to the engine of my old 1963 Chevy Nova: almost impossibly simple, with a lot of steel covered in grease, a few really big wires and fan blades that could get a Cessna off the ground. I’m impressed by the durability of old vehicles, too, but not as much as the Sam’s fridge. Even the most workhorse truck on the planet is at most being used 20 or 30 hours per week. Other than the time a few years ago that Sam’s moved from near Burlingame Avenue to a former Greyhound depot a block away, I’m not sure that this refrigerator has ever been turned off.

The Sam’s fridge also represents a time before our culture became so disposable. I looked around my house yesterday, and I can’t imagine any of my recent purchases with a mechanical feature lasting more than a decade, even with casual use. During the time that Sam’s has had one refrigerator — which is probably opened and closed thousands of times per week — I have watched at least a half dozen refrigerators break down in my various dorms, apartments and houses.

So consider this a tribute to the Sam’s refrigerator, the most badass appliance I know. Please share your own stories of workhorse appliances in the comments.

Sam’s Italian Sandwich Co. is at 1080 Howard Ave. in Burlingame, across the street from the Pez museum. I recommend the Sam’s Special, which combines four different Italian meats. The refrigerator is impossible to miss — to the right of the cash register.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.